“Spy Mania” Ë 65
was arrested in Chita, Siberia, on suspicion of espionage, causing a diplomatic scan-
dal.⁴⁹In reaction, the Russian government itself admitted that “spy incidents” had
become an “infectious disease” in Russia.⁵⁰
It is true that Japan, like Russia, engaged in clandestine operations. Some Japanese
disguised themselves as priests or lamas or Koreans and engaged in intelligence work,
while others masked themselves as barbers, dentists, photographers, and the like.
Japan also used entertainers such as circus performers and “professional ghters”
(judo and karate masters) who reached Central Asia and the Caucasus as well.⁵¹In
1907 a Japanese (“Major Takenouchi”) was spotted by Russian authorities around
Baku, while in Batumi another Japanese, a convert to Islam, one “Abdul Hamid Saishi
Nakashima” was observed.⁵²In fact, in February 1907 Major Takeo Takenouchi, with
his interpreter “Nobuhiko Okawa,” visited Baku, Ti is, Erevan, and Batumi before
moving on to Odesa.⁵³Another Japanese, “Kazioto Ito,” age thirty-two, was arrested
in Vladikavkaz and another, “Oiyama” in Batumi in July 1907. Ito was arrested for his
close connections with Ossetians in the Vladikavkaz area. Their activity, according
to the Russian police, indicated “espionage, revolutionary agitation, and nancial
and military support [for the Caucasians].”⁵⁴Yet immediately after these arrests, in
September 1907, three Japanese o cers, “Major Nabussi Muto,” “Major Takayanagi”
and “Uchiya” visited Baku. Although Uchiya fell ill there, Muto and Takayanagi went
on to visit Ti is, Batumi, and Odesa. At about the same time, another Japanese, “Mat-
suyosuki Kawai,” visited Batumi and Ti is before moving on to Baku.⁵⁵In 1910 Colonel
“Hagino” of the Japanese army was spotted in Ti is, Vladikavkaz, Mineral’nye Vody,
and Krasnovodsk (today’s Turkmenbashy).⁵⁶In 1913, on the eve of World War I, Rus-
sian police suspected that a “troupe of Japanese artists” (“HanakoOta,” “Konstantin ̄
Aleksandrovich Saratori” [Shiratori?], and an Orthodox Christian who had worked at
49 Manabu Kikkawa,Hiroku Rikugun rimenshi: sh ̄ogun Araki no shichij ̄unen(Tokyo: Yamato Shobo, ̄
1954), pp. 224–38 and N.V. Grekov,Russkaia kontrrazvedka v 1905–1917 gg.: shpionomaniia i real’nye
problemy(Moscow: Mosk. obshch. nauch. fond, 2000), 190–192.
50 Yoshimura, “Nichiro sens ̄o go,” p. 19.
51 GARF, f. 102, DP PP, 1907, op. 316, d. 38ch2, l. 1–2 (Rostov on the Don), 1908, op. 316, d. 38lG, l. 58
and 79 (Kyiv, Kazan, Tomsk, Chita, and Khabarovsk). See also Grekov,Russkaia kontrrazvedka, 145.
52 Alex Marshall, “Imperial Russian War Planning for the Eurasian Space and the Impact of the War,”
inRethinking the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–05: Centennial Perspectives, ed. Rotem Kowner, v. 1 (Folke-
stone: Global Oriental, 2006), 301.
53 GARF, f. 102, DP PP, 1907, d. 316, d. 38ch1, ll. 27, 50–52, 68.
54 GARF, f. 102, DP PP, 1907, d. 38ch2, ll. 1–2, 8. In this connection, two Japanese, “Saimoto” and
“Ochiri” in Moscow and a certain “Brublevskii,” likely a Pole, as well as a circus troop in Rostov on
the Don (see note 51 above) were arrested.
55 GARF, f. 102, DP PP, 1907, d. 38ch2, ll. 195–97, 201, 206.
56 GARF, f. 102, DP PP, 1910, op. 316, d. 38lv, ll. 88–89, 93.